(Photo courtesy Sun Devil Athletics)
The ASU cross country team will compete in Tucson at their second meet of the season on Saturday. There, the Sun Devils will race in the Dave Murray Invitational, facing off against a slew of teams including UTEP, Grand Canyon, New Mexico State, San Diego State and their biggest rival and invitational host, Arizona.
ASU already faced Arizona at the UC Riverside Invitational where the Wildcats’ men’s team finished sixth, two spots above ASU, and the women’s team finished first. Both squads will be looking to have a slightly better performance on Saturday.
For ASU, runners like senior Vincent Mauri and senior Lena Lebrun are looking to build on their performances from Riverside. Mauri won the men’s race, and Lebrun took 16th on the women’s side. Overall, the men’s team took eighth place out of the 30 schools that competed, and the women’s team got 20th out of 31 schools.
Another top finish for Mauri would help keep him on pace to have a productive season. Last year he finished 39th at the NCAA Division I West Region Cross Country Championship and will look to finish higher in his final year.
Another prominent contributor to the Sun Devils’ eighth-place finish was sophomore Dayton Carlson, who finished 54th. His time of 24:36.3 outpaced his previous personal best in the 8k by almost 1:30. He has taken a substantial leap from his first year to his sophomore season and will look to contribute even more in Tucson.
Lebrun is also looking for a higher placing at the Dave Murray Invitational. Last season, she ran a personal best of 21:60.0 in the 6k at the PAC-12 Championship. She has already surpassed that mark this year, as she finished with a time of 20:44.8 in Riverside.
The veteran presence of Lebrun and Mauri has helped the team in addition to new head coach Ryun Godfrey. Godfrey has past running experience at North Dakota State, where he was a seven-time league champion. His past coaching experience also comes from NDSU as well as Kansas State.
The women’s 6k race starts at 7 a.m., and the men’s 8k race starts at 7:45 a.m. This will be the team’s final chance to improve their times before the PAC-12 Championship on Oct. 28.
